Nation Ford’s Vanessa Cardona returns the ball during her match against Clover. The Falcons and Fort Mill will battle for a region title next week.

With a 4-2 victory over Clover, the Nation Ford Falcons girls’ tennis team is inching closer to a Region 3-5A title.

The Falcons, who are 6-0 on the season all in region play, take on Fort Mill next week, who has dropped just one match all year, and that was to Nation Ford. If the Falcons can beat Fort Mill, they will clinch the region title. If Fort Mill wins, the two teams will share the region title, as long as they don’t lose anymore region matches. The Falcons have two more region matches; the one against Fort Mill Oct. 6 and then at Gaffney Oct. 8. Fort Mill will play Nation Ford and then Boiling Springs Oct. 7.

Against Clover, Nation Ford got crucial wins from its top two players – Vanessa Cardona at No. 1 singles and Alex Cardona at No. 2 singles. Vanessa Cardona won 6-1, 6-3 and Alex Cardona won 6-2, 6-0 in their matches.

Nation Ford lost two singles matches at No. 3 and No. 4 singles, but won at No. 5 singles with Neha Arunprakash winning 6-0, 6-0. The Falcons closed out the match winning in the only doubles match with Lauren Padgett and Bella Neff winning 6-3, 7-5.

The Falcons have one non-region match schedule against Catawba Ridge Oct. 7.

Golf

The Nation Ford girls’ golf team closed out the regular season by beating Northwestern and York. The Falcons finished the regular season at 7-5-1.

Nation Ford shot a 200 as a team, while Northwestern shot a 211 and York shot a 221. The Falcons were led by Vivian Harris, who shot a 46, and was followed by a 47 from Sara McCaskill. Sarah Tran shot a 53 and Katie Griggs shot a 54.

Up next for the Falcons is the Region 3-5A tournament Oct. 5 at Chester Golf Club. 

Mac Banks: mac@fortmillprepsports.com, @fortprep